New Delhi: Both the Congress and the BJP on Monday criticized each other over visiting of senior leaders to flood-hit Uttarakhand.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari questioned the absence of BJP leaders in Uttarakhand. "Did anyone see LOP's in both houses express sympathy/visit disaster hit Uttrakhand. This from a party that criticizes visits of Cong leaders," he tweeted, referring to the Leaders of Opposition in Parliament.

"H'onble LOP's have mindspace to critique govt proposals on CBI autonomy that are yet to be placed before SC but no time to visit Uttrakhand," he added.

Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj hit back, saying: "We did not go to Uttarakhand because home minister made a public statement that our visit will hamper the rescue effort."

"He (Home Minister) went to the extent of saying that nobody including himself was allowed to land anywhere," Swaraj added on Twitter.

She claimed that the Uttarakhand government had not been able to rise to the occasion to deal with the devastation caused by the rains and floods.

"They ought to be dismissed for being inept and incompetent. The truth is that I woke you up about the scale of tragedy when I spoke to home minister on June 18 and tweeted about this," said Swaraj.

Accusing the government of having done nothing for the victims, she said: "Those who cannot govern in crisis do not deserve to be in the government even for a day."

Over 100,000 people have been evacuated and thousands are said to be missing in the flash floods that ravaged the hill state.